SYMBALOO - Social Bookmarking

As I reviewed all of the links on the Social Bookmarking assignment, It was hard for me to move past Symbaloo which was the first one on the list.

To open your own Symbaloo Account, click here.

As an SPED elementary school teacher, I gravitated towards Symbaloo because it seemed to be so user friendly and easy to not only set up for my students but for my students to use independently.  After I reviewed the other links, I installed and opened a Symbaloo account for my personal computer.  I made  a WebMix for my daughters of all of the websites they frequently visit.  My 5-year-old always needed someone to type in all of the different urls.  Now she is able to select different websites independently.

Here is a tutorial video that can help explain Symbaloo in more details.

I like the way Symbaloo utilizes icons, graphics and pictures to display weblinks.  This will help my students identify the website links with ease.  In the classroom, this would be a great way to differentiate or set up work stations or centers with different webmixes available for different content areas for students that may need to complete assignments, enhancement activities or remediation and tutorial sessions .  The webmix page can hold as few as 10 urls up to 60 depending on the topic and graph display you would like to set up.

For my digital literacy assignment, I chose eight websites that have teacher tools and resources, articles, blogs, assessments and courses that can be taken to learn how to implement digital literacy tools in the classroom.  Click the Symbaloo Icon below to visit my webmix.

Edmodo - Social Media Activity

I am a SPED teacher for a third grade Inclusion class.   For my Edmodo lesson, I chose the story "The Trial of Cardigan Jones" by Tim Egan.   I was first introduced to this story on the third week of school.  It is a part of our basal reading unit from Houghton Mifflin.

This story is about a moose, Cardigan Jones, who is accused of stealing a freshly-baked pie from Mrs. Brown's window sill.  Eyewitnesses, policeman and jury members are quickly convinced that he is guilty.  However, when the judge gets to see Cardigan in action, he is able to prove his innocence.

For my Edmodo activity, I created two activities for my students to post.  I listed scenarios where they can choose a character from the story to role play and answer a question I posed "in character."  They were also required to reply to a classmate's post "in character.'  The second post was a journal entry activity where they could personally reflect on how it would feel to be falsely accused.  They would also be required to post replies to other classmates.  Their posts could also transition into a whole group discussion using a bubble map to identify the qualities of the judge that made him a good leader.  This Edmodo lesson will help my students gain a sense of ability and importance in identifying positive and negative character traits as well as being able to make connections to self, to text and to the world.

I believe this will be a great read aloud for any grade level for a variety of reasons.  The book is short and visual.  It can be used as an introduction to Social Studies units about trials, jury, judges, and/or court systems.  It can be used as a guidance lesson to discuss bullying, about being a tattle tale and a moral lesson on not waiting for the facts before presuming someone is guilty.  It could be a Drop Everything and Read book with no academic lesson driven purpose just because it's an entertaining story with great illustrations.

BLOG with CLASS

Blogs used in the classroom helps engage students in their learning.  It creates more opportunities to entice resistant readers and writers to participate in reading and writing activities.  Blogs also create a type of  "one stop shop" for all members involved in the educational setting.  Students can use your blog to catch up on missing assignments when absent from class. Your student's parents can gain access to a virtual glimpse inside of your classroom.   Your colleagues can offer their suggestions to enhance the lesson activities, collaborate on other ways to incorporate blogging into lesson plans and/or get inspired from your ideas that are already percolating in your classroom.  Blogging can de-clutter the paper trails.  Blogging cuts down on papers for students to lose or make airplanes with and for teachers less to track and lug around until graded.

As a SPED teacher, I am always searching for ways to not only differentiate lessons but create and implement strategies that give all SPED students the ability to access the general curriculum.   Blogging in the classroom can help level the playing field for SPED students.  For example, I have a few students who have dysgraphia, struggling readers and a few others lack organization skills.  A blog will help a student who is never motivated to write because of poor handwriting skills and laborious efforts.   A blog will also give disorganized students a central location for retrieving and submitting classwork.  Struggling readers may choose to read peer comments over textbooks.

Blogging also provides students and teachers an opportunity to practice 21st century skills by implementing Web 2.0 resources into their assignments and discussions.  This generation is inundated with technology so any assignment using computers, tablets and the internet will be appreciated by students.  Some students may not even consider it hard work and others may not even realize they are learning.

But if you don't want to take my word for it, view this video which are students of all nationalities, ages and gender explaining their approval of blogging in the classroom.

Top 10 Reasons to Blog in the Classroom